Archives for The National Speakers Association

I met Cavett Robert, a modern day philosopher, in 1994 at my first National Speakers Association convention in Washington DC. That year I also met Og Mandino, Zig Ziglar and Mark Victor Hansen. It was an amazing convention at both the hotel that facilitated the convention and the Vietnam Wall Memorial.

At the time, I had no clue who Cavett Robert was.

Cavett Robert was the founder of the National Speakers Association. He wanted to form a national organization with the goals of making professional speaking a full-time job. His first stab at forming the National Speakers Association failed. Nobody believed that anyone could have a full time job as a professional speaking for a living.

Cavett was persistent. He used his skills as a salesman and won people over to form the National Speakers Association. To this day, NSA promotes the high ethical and professional standards of its members.

NSA’s first president was the late Bill Gove. The organization began with sales seminars in Phoenix for eight years. Twenty people joined at the NSA’s incorporation. At the fifth year convention held in New Orleans, 300 people attended, which was more than three times the number of any previous gathering.

Today, NSA has around 4,500 members and continues to grow! There is now an International Speaking Federation for world-wide members, and according to my friend Terry Brock, a new chapter has launched in Panama where Terry resides every August. Cavett passed away in 1997, leaving a lasting legacy in every individual’s heart who has heard a motivational speaker or trainer from the National Speaker’s Association.

Today, Primeau Productions has been asked by Joe Sabah to digitally restore some Cavett Robert video from 1973 and share it with the world so everyone can understand first hand who Cavett was.

The footage we uploaded of Cavett’s final performance at an NSA convention is on the Primeau Productions YouTube channel. These newly restored videos can be seen here:

Primeau Productions feels it is important to preserve our modern day philosopher’s messages on video whenever possible. Video recordings of modern day philosophers like Cavett, Napoleon Hill and others like Earl Nightingale have been professionally restored and are available for your viewing on the Primeau Productions YouTube channel: